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A development in Information and Communication Technologies promising
to have a large impact on tourism is the phenomenon known as the Web 2.0. A key to
this development is the encouraging of interactivity due to User Generated Content
(UGC). This paper focuses on a specific type of UGC: Tourist Created Content (TCC).
Based on an exploratory examination of the Web and an extensive analysis of the
content, the study systematizes the knowledge about TCC, presents a classification
system and provides an overview of its characteristics. The paper shows the processes
that allow the tourist to digitalize content and reveals how TCC relates to the cultures of
the Internet and shapes the tourism experience.

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The starting point of this PhD research is two observations. The first is that people often tend to
discuss a country’s national competitiveness in a general tone, i.e., judging a country to be either
competitive or uncompetitive, rather than making more balanced assessment, and therefore their
opinions often contradict each other. The second observation is that there are many competing
international reports that rank a large number of countries in terms of their national competitiveness.
These reports often provide different rankings for a given country (e.g., China), and therefore the
readers of these reports are often left with a confusing picture. The first observation reflects the
reality that there has been a lack of commonly accepted definition of national competitiveness. The
second reflects the methodological problems of the indexing-and-ranking methods commonly used
by international competitiveness reports...

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This paper argues that the existing four major theories of the firm, i.e., the transaction cost theory, resource-based view, the entrepreneurial theory, and the stakeholder theory, are all insightful yet partial because each of them has a particular focus on the phenomenon of the firm. To better understand the nature and behaviors of the firm, we need a comprehensive yet integrative theory. Toward this end, this paper proposes a relationship-based theory of the firm (R’BT) which claims that it is the relationships between the entrepreneur and other individuals or firms that determine the existence, boundary, internal organization and competitive advantage of the firm.

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This paper gives an overview over how far transition has proceeded and what is still lacking in
the process. The analytical framework – the PIE model for Politics, Institutions, Economy – is
introduced. The model is first used to point to the main reasons for the fall of the command
economy. Then it is used to identify the barriers for transition of the institutional system and the
restructuring of the economy. This includes an analysis of the different factors behind the steep
fall in production in the first years of transition. It is shown that countries implementing a tough
stabilization and a comprehensive and consequent liberalization have been most successful in the
process. A fast and comprehensive privatization, on the other hand, has not been sufficient for the
necessary restructuring of enterprises. Decisive for success in transition has been transformation
of the state as a crucial part of the development of new political and economic institutions
implementing well functioning, clear and stable rules of the game for private enterprises. The
institutional development has been important for the attractiveness of foreign investments -
important for restructuring enterprises as part of a positive circle for the transition process.

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This paper gives an overview over how far transition has proceeded and what is still lacking in
the process. First the analytical framework – the PIE model for Politics, Institutions, Economy –
is introduces. The model is first used to point to the main reasons for the fall of the command
economy. Then it is used to identify the barriers for transition of the institutional system and the
restructuring of the economy. This includes an analysis of the different factors behind the steep
fall in production in the first years of transition. It is shown that countries implementing a tough
stabilization and a comprehensive and consequent liberalization have been most successful in the
process. A fast and comprehensive privatization, on the other hand, has not been sufficient for the
necessary restructuring of enterprises. Decisive for success in transition has been transformation
of the state as a crucial part of the development of new political and economic institutions
implementing well functioning, clear and stable rules of the game for private enterprises. The
institutional development has been important for the attractiveness of foreign investments -
important for restructuring enterprises as part of a positive circle for the transition process.

Asia (Japan, China, India and South East Asia) has a population of more than 2.5 billion people (a little less than half the world’s population). Asia is diverse and complex but it is first of all an exciting place and accounts for a significant and increasingly large share of the global economy, boasting three of the ten biggest economies – China, Japan and India. It is the growth center of the current world economy, with two of the fastest emerging economies, China and India. The rapid development is partly because the countries have received huge amounts of foreign direct investments (FDI). In 2009 China alone received US $ 92 billion in FDI and China has more expatriates than any other country in the world (Welch, Welch & Worm, 2007). Many expatriates are also based in Japan, India and South East Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia as well.

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Although trust has been given much attention in alliance literature as an explanatory factor,
little research has been devoted to defining and operationalizing trust. Trust is more or less seen
as a magic ingredient, poorly understood much like the concept of luck, and usually attributed ex
post; successful alliances seem to involve trust; unsuccessful alliances do not. The extant
literature has treated trust as a residual term for the complex social-psychological processes
necessary for social action to occur. Since trust is a social phenomenon, both national culture and
institutional arrangements have an impact on trust and the perception of trust. Hence, this paper
develops a conceptual model, based on a structural equation approach, for empirically exploring
the role played by trust in the process of learning in international strategic alliances. The model
distinguishes between pre-alliance formation factors and post-alliance formation factors in an
attempt to respond to calls for research examining the evolution of trust and its impact on
international collaborative relationships. The determinants of trust in international strategic
alliances are examined and a series of testable propositions are derived to guide future empirical
investigation.
Keywords: Trust, Strategic Alliances, Learning

This paper seeks to broaden our understanding of the concept underlying absorptive capacity at
the macro –level, paying particular attention to the growth and development perspectives. We
provide definitions of absorptive and technological capacity, external technology flows,
productivity growth, employment creation and their interrelations. We then analyse the elements
of absorptive capability, focusing on the nature of the relationship within a systems view of an
economy, focusing primarily on the role of firm and non-firm actors and the institutions that
connect them, both within and across borders. We also undertake to explain how the nature of
absorptive capacity changes with stages of economic development, and the importance of the
different aspects of absorptive capability at different stages. The relationship is not a linear one:
the benefits that accrue from marginal increases in absorptive capability change over time.
Finally, we provide a tentative and preliminary conceptual argument of how the different stages
of absorptive capacity are related to productivity growth, economic growth and employment
creation.
Key words: New economy, absorptive capacity, knowledge

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A number of influential studies have documented a considerable value premium for US stocks over long periods of time. Value stocks, defined as companies that trade at low price-earnings or price-book values, are reported to have given a higher mean return than growth stocks trading at high multiples. Outside the US, there is also robust evidence of a value premium for the UK, but otherwise the evidence is more uncertain due to data shortages. Studies of continental European and Asian markets are, for example, based on data that typically only covers 20 years of market history. The purpose of this paper is to report evidence for the Danish market using a consistent data set that extends over the period 1950-2008. On the basis of these data the paper investigates whether the value premium is a stylized fact or just a phenomenon that pops up every few decades only to disappear again. The results show that the Danish value premium exists and is significant over the long run. However, this paper also shows that the premium is not a simple constant but is volatile even across decades.

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A number of influential studies have documented a considerable value premium for US stocks over long time periods (Fama and French (1992, 2008), Lakonishok et al. (1994)). Stocks with low price-earnings multiples, price-book values and other measures of value are reported to have given a higher mean return than stocks with high multiples and high asset growth (Cooper et al. (2008)). Outside the US, the evidence is more uncertain due to data shortages. On the basis of a unique data set that extends over more than half a century, this paper not only shows that there is a value premium in the Danish market but also that growth stocks only produce high earnings growth in the run-up to portfolio formation. Growth stocks are therefore likely to have disappointed investors. We therefore also estimate the proportion of the premium that can be explained by growth stocks’ earnings disappointment.

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Tourists have happily embraced the possibilities of interactivity and publication provided by social
media and Web 2.0. The last decade has seen a massive increase of digital content generated by tourists
online. This paper examines the digitalization of tourists’ heritage experience, analyses the impact of
social media and user generated content in the consumption of heritage sites, and discusses new forms
of technologically mediated authenticity in tourism. Netnography and a constructive approach have
been adopted for the examination of online communities and social networks. There are different
types of tourist generated content online. This study focuses on the review genre and examines a
purposive sample of data collected from Tripadvisor which, with over 30 million contributions, is the
largest online community focusing on tourism and travel. Through a systematic analysis of tourists’
narratives and socio-technical structures, this study assesses how technologies influence tourists’
heritage experience. The research findings provide insights into the role that tourists’ online reviews
play as mediators of the tourism experience and illustrate the features of an emerging virtual tourism
culture.

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Cities are becoming alike. As a result, there is a rise of “copy-cat” cities. There
are many reasons for this, and this paper looks from the perspective of city branding: how
does place branding lead to the homogenization of cities? Using the case of Singapore,
and with references to Chinese cities, this paper highlights a number of accreditation
tactics in place branding campaigns. Accreditation is necessary because the brand needs
to seek credibility for the messages it sends. The types of accreditation used must also be
globally understood, so as to reach out to diverse world audiences.